Before The Incident At Malfoy Manor
by thereichenbachpen
Summary: Before the golden trio was captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, Luna was imprisoned there. Before Dean's captured, Draco is set with the task of guarding Ollivander and Lovegood. The strange girl was a nuisance... but could she possibly make an impact on him? Spoilers for all seven books. Please forgive spelling/grammar errors!
1. Chapter 1

A strange, soft sound, almost a song, rang out from somewhere in the mansion. I looked down the stretch of ebony dining table, over the crystal bowl of green apples. I set down my fork and strained to listen, but the sound was elusive.

Mother and Father weren't due home until after Christmas and the elf wouldn't dare breathe a sound with consent. I stood, pushing my plate of food away, nearly untouched. As I left the dining room, the candles in the chandelier faded and sputtered out magically. I followed the noise through the main entryway and down through the halls toward the dungeon. It had to be Lovegood.

I moved quickly down steps, shifting quickly on the steps. I swung open the anterior door and stopped in front of the bars. Even in the darkness, her paleness shown almost iridescently.

Her hair, dirty as it was, hung down her back pale as moonlight tied in a ragged braid, wispy, frayed, and loose. She was kneeling beside Ollivander, who was sleeping fitfully in the corner, her lips still softly shaping the tuneless notes.

"Shut up," I spat at her, forcing my lit wand through the bars. The light made her eyelashes flutter and she stood, moving deftly through the cellar.

"Mr. Ollivander needs rest," she said in her melancholy, strange voice.

"You think your screaching is letting him sleep?" I hissed, lowering my vice despite myself.

"The lullaby is an ancient elf song. It's considered medicinal in many countries. Just because you don't understand it, doesn't give you license to hate it."

"Do you not get that you're trapped here? You don't have license to do anything." She laughed lightly. "What is wrong with you?"

"You can't hurt me anymore than you have already. Does that really make me the trapped one?"

My wand flickered upward beneath her chin, the contact of the wood and the bone of her jaw creating a sharp crack in the quiet.

I thought I saw her eyes wince closed in pain, but her lips smiled softly. I withdrew my wand and sneered. "Now, I'll have to have this cleaned of your filth." I turned away. "No more singing."

"Oh no", her voice floated back. "This is much too quiet a place to heal." Before I reached the top of the stairs, her tuneless song filled the quiet again. I flicked the silencing spell behind me.

Mother and Father had sent early for me from school only to have left me alone in the house. Not that their presence would have filled it. What soul my father had had was sucked away in the bowls of Azkaban and he'd been feeding off my Mother's ever since he had returned. I woke up three days before Christmas to a quiet that almost stung. The elf had set out hot coffee and some kind of hard scone with green apple slices on my dresser. I ate on the edge of the bed and then crossed to the window, looking out over the acres of green, dotted with the purple flare of peacocks, feathers spread proudly. I could tell it was still early, the sun just having crested Malfoy Wood.

I dressed and went down, sitting before the fire that burned at a slow flame. It barely made a noise as it crackled. A clatter sounded in the hall and I jumped up as though I had been waiting for it, drawing my wand. By the time I reached it, the elf had already magicked the dishes into her arms. Her bright eyes shown with fear as I stood with my wand aimed at her heart, almost visibly hammering in her chest.

"What was that bloody rukkus?"

"Forgive me, master Draco," she whispered, dropping to her nobly knees, her ears flopping onto the cement. The dishes remained magically floated above her.

"What are those dishes for? Stealing food out of our cupboards?"

"No sir. Minka was following orders, sir. Feeding the prisoners, sir. Just exactly as Mistress instructed Minka before Mistress left."

"And did she instruct you to clash her silver against the floor?" I snapped, already putting my wand away.

"No, sir. Minka will of course punish herself, sir."

"Why haven't I seen you feed them before? I've almost been here a week."

"Minko feeds them every three days, sir. Only every three days. Just as Mistress says. Exactly as Mistress instructed."

"Get up and out of my sight," I said moving past her. At the top of the stairs I paused to listen. Indistinct whispers floated upward. I moved downward slowly straining to listen.

"You're already improving," came Luna's voice. "You see? We'll be alright."

"Bless you child," the wand-maker's voice answered, weak and scratchy.

"See if you can sleep, okay? I'll keep watch for Nargles."

I moved down toward the last step just as she began to sing. She turned toward me as she heard my step on the stairs, lifting a finger to her lips. She moved toward me, carefully avoiding a bowl of oatmeal set carefully aside.

The man was already asleep, curled into himself on the stone. "You aren't hungry?" I asked, gesturing to the food, too incredulous to sound as disgusted as I meant to.

She searched my eyes with hers, round and luminous. "We ration what we have." She stood mightily, her thin frame solid and unwavering. I met her gaze.

"Do what you want. You can't be hurt anymore. Right?" I asked, my wand out before I could think. Wordlessly, I flipped the bowl of porridge with a flick and turned away.

"I can see that you got hurt," her voice echoed stronger than I'd heard her before. "And you don't want to be the same. But it's what you know."

"I like causing you pain. You're filth. It's what you deserve."

"No," she said, almost sing-song, kneeling and scraping the porage back into the bowel. "But I think you believe it will relieve your pain somehow. I hope you learn it will not, Draco Malfoy."

I almost knocked the elf to the ground as I reached the top of the stairs, shutting out her lingering echo as I slammed the door behind me. The elf stared up at me with great, round eyes. "Is Master Draco alright?"

"Four days. Feed them every _four_ days- no more. Understand?"

"But sir… Mistress said."

"I will kill you if you do not obey me, elf. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, Sir. Just as Master Draco says, sir."


	2. Chapter 2

**Please forgive grammar/spelling errors. Enjoy!**

Christmas Eve saw snow blanketing the grounds, silent and cold, further padlocking the house in its stately loneliness. I drank soup by the hearth, leafing through an old Potion's text book. The rustle of the pages was comforting, but I wasnt absorbing the words my eyes scanned.

"Elf," I said softly, a sharp crack summoning her immediately into the room.

"Yes Master Draco, sir?" She stuttered and I didnt turn to look at her, but set down my text, staring into the flame.

"Any post this morning?"

"None, sir."

I bowed my head. I didnt know what I had hoped for. Death Eaters didnt often send Christmas greetings, but something from Goyle or even Pansy would have been a welcome sight. Even my fathers cold scrawl would have been a comfort.

"Be gone," I said, holding out the dish, which she magicked quickly away and vanished quickly from the room.

I stood and set my hand on the mantle, looking for all the world like a painting, dressed in black, dark green dress shirt buttoned high on my neck. There was no one to see, but a Malfoy was always at attention. Mother would have liked me wearing green today. A touch of Christmad spirit. I closed my eyes softly, wishing her safe, wherever the Dark Lord had sent her.

I moved away from the fireplace, my lips moving in a quiet tune. I drew up short when I recognized the song. It was that tuneless racket Lovegood had gotten stuck in my head. My eyes fell to the hall. I hadn't been down in a few days.

Filled with the desire to simply have human a interchange, I walked down toward the Dungeon, shifting down the steps, feeling a scowl settle on my brow. No doubt Lovegood had found a way to find some Christmas cheer, even in the dark of her captivity.

I lifted the silencing spell as I reached the bottom of the steps and a mourning sob met my ears.

It was the old man, his husky tone crying shamelessly.

He sniffled to a stop as I reached the bars. I lit my wand, my heart hammering in my chest.

"Please, you have to do something," he pleaded, looking up at me from his crouched position, eyes red and wet. Cradled in the crook of his arm, Lovegood still form laid cold and motionless. "I didnt realize soon enough. She wasnt eating. I dont know how long it's been. Please."

"If this is a trick," I spat, but the old man began to cry hard, lowering his head to her mass of dirty, tangled hair. We were holding the girl to keep her coot of a father from publishing his obscene paper. Father wouldnt be pleased if she died. The Dark Lord wouldnt be pleased.

Hastily unlocking the door, I rendered the old man motionless with a spell, the tears frozen on his cheeks. I tugged Lovegood out from his grasp, her skin paler than normal. A fear took root in my core. She really looked dead and she felt cold to the touch. I looped my arm under her neck, the other beneath her legs and lifted her. She was extraordinarily light, barely a burden.

I hurried back up the stairs, shutting the door with my foot and hearing it clicked locked behind me. I didnt think to go to a guest room, but instead went immediately to my own, laying her down quickly on the bed.

I found her pulse in her neck and let out a long breath. She was alive, but certainly unconscious. I cast a spell on my room, preventing any living thing to enter or exit. In this light she was so much dirtier than I had realized. Her hair and hands were cached in dirt.

Worthless as she was, it was frightening to see her lying so lifelessly in front of me. Usually, she was more alive than most people. I pulled back the blankets and tucked her underneath and went into my bathroom, just the left of my bed. I filled a basin with hot water and grabbed one of the cloths hanging near the tub.

I hesitated a moment, the sight of her lying in my four-poster bed strange and unsettling. Moving back toward the bed, I flicked my wand toward the hearth and lit the fire in a blaze that crackled passionately. Dipping the serpand-emrboidered cloth into the water, I looked down at her. This kind of work wasnt meant for a Malfoy. I shouldn't even have touched the filthy little muggle-lover. But she was so weak and I didnt trust Minka not to kill her in her clumsiness. Sometimes, these things had to be done. Surely Father couldnt object.

I touched the towel to her forehead and then cheek, wiping away the grime that had gathered there. Her skin was pure moonlight, her lips thin and chapped. I was considered summoning Mother's smelling salts when her eyes fluttered open. She was disoriented, her luminous eyes flicking to the left and right.

"Where is Mr. Ollivander?" She whispered after a moment.

"He's fine but you nearly went and killed yourself," I said harshly, dropping the towel back into the basin and sloshing water onto my dresser and floor. "If this was some kind of escape plan, you failed."

"Mr. Ollivander was starving," she murmured, eyes unfocused. "I had to do something."

"Well, you ended up starving yourself. Good plan." Her eyes rolled back a little and her eyes fluttered closed. "Hey," I reprimanded. "Stay awake. I suppose you need to eat something."

"I'm not hungry," she lisped softly, turning away from me.

"Hey, no," I said, my face flushing angrily. "Sit up. Look at me." Her shoulders relaxed and she drooped further into the pillows. "I said look at me, mudblood," I demanded, pulling her shoulder back toward me.

Her eyes opened wearily, her eyes out of focus. "My blood isnt dirty," she whispered. "But your spirit is."

"Just sit up," I snapped. I huffed, sliding my arms beneath her and pulling her upward into a sitting position. I summoned water from across the room and held it up to her lips. "You need to drink this."

She lifted her hand and tipped the water into her mouth, but I kept my hand secure on the cup, certain that she would spill all over the duvet. She swallowed quietly until the glass was empty.

"Now you have to eat."

"No," she said, more firmly.

"Do you want to die?"

"Not until you show me that Ollivander is alright."

She looked defiantly into my eyes, weak but unwavering. I set the water down, glaring at her.

"If you're dead when I come back up here," I began to threaten but she only smiled and I left the words unsaid. A part of me considered binding her in some way, but I decided the spell was enough. I moved quickly back down the stairs to the dungeon and hauled Ollivander to his feet, quickly releasing him from the binding spell.

"You know you almost let her die?"

"I didnt know, I didnt know," he repeated weakly as i dragged him upstairs, toward my doorframe, stopping there and gesturing toward the girl, fading again into the pillows. She brightened when he saw the man.

"Oh I'm glad you're alright," she said, trying to sit up, but getting visibly dizzy.

"Yes, child, because of you," he croaked. "Please rest."

"Oh dont make him go back," Lovegood called after me. "He's ill. Please. You can ask Minka to guard him. I know she would."

"Of course she would, she has to do what I say. Elf," I shouted and Minka appeared, eyes wide at the sight. "I'm putting him in the room down the hall. You will feed him and have him bathe and if he so much as sneezes without consent I will cut off your ears and then nail them back on. Do you understand?"

"Yes master, Draco," she whimpered, but I was already moving down the hall.

I opened the door and pushed the old man back on the bed, spelling the room sealed. He wheezed as he pulled his feet to onto the bed. "I'm not afraid to use unforgivable curses," I shot, as Minka trotted into the room, head down. "On either of you."

I summoned a bowl of broth before walking back into my bedroom. Lovegood was deathly pale, but smiling softly. "There isnt a need to speak so violently, Draco Malfoy."

"Dont say my name," I said, feeling my face heat. "You're making it dirty."

"You're not so cruel, you know," she whispered and I sat on the edge of the bed, lifting a spoonful of broth. "There is good in you. I see it."

"Yeah you're probably hallucinating purple fairies right now too, so I wouldn't count on that," I said quietly, but I couldn't quite summon the grit to meet her eyes.

 **Comments= Encouragement**


End file.
